Minutes
Winthrop Commission On Disabilities · from the Town's website · 2 pages · 158 KB
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Winthrop Commission on Disability MINUTES Meeting Date: June 25, 2025 Commission Members In Attendance: John Morgan Kathleen Kane Karla Murphy Nancy Tufo Susan Smith 1. Roll call 2. Approved minutes from May meeting 3. Remembrance of Gerald (Jerry) DiFranza Commission members agreed to purchase two bricks from the Winthrop Improvement & Historical Association BRICK 1: three lines Jerry DiFranza Advocate for the Blind Brick 2: three lines Jerry DiFranza Winthrop Commission on Disability Cost of bricks cannot be covered by 22G funds so members can donate to Karla’s Venmo account and she will order the bricks 4. Guest Speaker was scheduled to be Al Lagee but he had a conflict; WCOD would like to invite him in the fall and work together to perhaps do a community accessibility monitoring study 5. ADA Anniversary in July • Karla & Nancy communicated with Greg from the library; we will set up an ADA35 table at the reception desk with books purchased by WCOD using 22G funds; Karla will make a stand up flyer for the table regarding ADA 35 and using the material provided by Susan Smith; we will include pour Resource Guides on the table • Ben Rabinovitz of WMEX offered to do some publicity spots about the ADA35 Event at City Hall on July 23 rd ; Susan Smith will contact him with details • Karla will issue a press release for the Transcript and will send the flyer to the TM’s blog 6. MBTA Bus Line • John Morgan brought up an issue about the bus route in Winthrop—apparently there are now two separate routes to replace the one loop that the 712 and 713 have historically made; now, to get from one end of Winthrop to the other, a rider must exit the bus and wait for the other bus to complete the journey; the wait is sometimes up to 20 minutes, which can be a hardship in inclement or hot weather and is real inconvenience to get to the other side of town • John has spoken to Suzanne Swopes about the issue and there might be a letter going out from the Town Council which John hopes we can endorse • WCOD needs more info, but would certainly advocate for the return to the loop if there is no compelling reason for the MBTA to separate one route (which only covers 1.5 square miles) into two • We need more info, specifically the reasoning behind the change, if it is temporary or permanent; if this is a trial; if the Senior Center has noted any concerns as well from people it serves • John will keep us apprised of the situation 7. NEXT MEETING: July 9 th at 6 p.m. The July meeting will be brief—we will hold elections if there is a quorum and discuss any updates Respectfully submitted, Karla Murphy